Clement VII

Italian pope (1523-1534)

• Born: May 26, 1478
• Birthplace: Florence (now in Italy)
• Died: September 25, 1534
• Place of death: Rome, Papal States (now in Italy)

While Clement’s pontificate was marred with failures, especially with regard to halting the spread of the Protestant Reformation and witnessing the sack of Rome, he did manage to encourage reforms within the Catholic Church through newly established religious orders and did much to enrich the art treasures of the Vatican.

Early Life

Giulio de’ Medici, who would become Pope Clement VII, was born the illegitimate son of Giuliano de’ Medici. Giuliano was the brother of Lorenzo de’ Medici, ruler of the powerful city-state of Florence. Within a year of Giulio’s birth, his father was killed by an assassin, and the boy was left in the care of his uncle Lorenzo. Lorenzo died when Giulio was only fourteen, and guardianship of the boy was then assumed by Lorenzo’s second son, Giovanni, himself only three years older than his cousin Giulio.

Giovanni became Pope Leo X in 1513. As pope, he quickly promoted his cousin Giulio to the rank of cardinal and also made him his personal vice-chancellor. Giulio proved an able administrator, serving his cousin Leo until the pope’s death in 1521. He continued in this same capacity during the short reign of Leo’s successor, Pope Adrian VI , who became pope in 1522 but died in 1523.

Adrian’s short papacy left the church facing another papal election in 1523. After nearly six weeks of deliberations among the cardinals, Giulio de’ Medici emerged from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel as Pope Clement VII on November 17, 1523. The election had been marred by deceit and trickery on the part of factions among the cardinals, including Clement himself. Subsequently, as Clement VII, Giulio de’ Medici was to face some of the most serious challenges yet to befall the Papacy challenges that would end in the destruction of Rome and a weakening of papal influence.

Life’s Work

Pope Clement VII began his papacy caught between the political ambitions of King Charles V of Spain (who was also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) and King Francis I of France. Both kings wanted control of the duchy of Milan as well as other parts of northern Italy. Fearing he might end up under the complete domination of Charles, since the Spanish already ruled the entire southern part of Italy, Clement threw his support to Francis and entered into an alliance with the French in December, 1524. Siding with Francis meant a greater possibility of papal independence and the likelihood that France would leave Clement’s home city of Florence under Medici rule. On hearing of Clement’s alliance with Francis, Charles became furious and sought revenge.

On February 25, 1525, Charles’s troops met the French army at Pavia. After a tremendous battle, the Spanish army emerged victorious, taking Francis I as prisoner. On receiving news of the victory, Clement, now fearing for the future of the Papacy, sought an alliance with Charles, which when finalized essentially placed all Italy under Spanish protection.

In time, dissatisfied with the imperial rule, the duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, conspired to overthrow his Spanish conquerors by bribing the commander of Charles’s imperial troops, the marquis of Pescara. The plot called for offering Pescara the kingdom of Naples, already under Spain’s control, in exchange for leading a revolt against Spanish forces in Italy. Clement was told of the plan and agreed to endorse it despite his previous alliance with Charles, but Pescara, loyal to the Spanish king, informed his sovereign of the plot and arrested Sforza. In the meantime, Charles, who knew of Clement’s subversion, was content to leave the pope wondering what the future held for the Papacy.

After nearly a year, Charles agreed to release Francis on condition that the French king, under oath, renounce all claims to the Burgundy region of France as well as all northern Italian territories. Francis agreed and was released. Hoping to reunite in an alliance with the freed French king and thus regain more autonomy for the Papacy, Clement pursued Francis, offering to absolve him from breaking his oath to Charles on condition that Francis ally himself with the Papacy, Venice, and Milan against the Spanish. This alliance, the League of Cognac, was formed May 22, 1526.

The league, though, proved ineffective. Francis had neither the money to support the military needs of his allies nor the funds to ensure an adequate defense of Rome. Likewise, Clement’s Italian allies, Milan and Venice, never delivered the support necessary to mount a strong opposition force. With little to stop the advancing forces under the command of Pompeo Colonna, a pro-Spanish cardinal, from attacking the Vatican, Clement, fearing for his life, fled the city to the safety of the papal Castle of Sant’ Angelo.

Colonna’s attack was followed by another attack by a united force of German mercenaries, known as landsknechts, and Spanish soldiers. The attackers made their way to the gates of Rome determined to take the city. In a panic, Clement attempted a hastened treaty with the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican, but it was too late. Angry because they had not been paid sufficiently for their services, the German mercenaries saw the spoils of war as a much more enticing reward than soldiers’ pay and advanced on Rome, scaling its walls the morning of May 6, 1527. The sack of Rome had begun.

The siege and subsequent five-month occupation of Rome were chronicled in vivid detail. Captives were held for ransom, and those who could not pay were executed. Drunkenness and debauchery abounded. The German mercenaries, primarily Protestants, rejoiced in the open desecration of Catholic churches and religious objects. Nuns were raped, tortured, and killed. The Tiber River, which ran through the heart of Rome, was filled with the dead bodies of so many murdered victims that by mid-summer a plague had overrun what was left of the city. The inhabitants of Rome blamed the destruction of the city on Clement’s clandestine treaties and broken promises.

With Rome in ruins and the papal treasury empty, Clement had no choice but to sign yet another treaty that subjugated the pope to the Spanish king’s dominion. In return, Charles agreed to remove his troops from Rome on the conditions that the Vatican refrain from future political entanglements and plots against the Spanish sovereign and that Clement call for a Vatican council to discuss reforms within the Church. Clement agreed, but in doing so, he relinquished much of the Vatican’s political and religious influence to Charles.

The final crisis to face Clement was the matter of English king Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon . Catherine, the aunt of Charles V, had previously been married to Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, who had died shortly after their marriage. According to Catherine, her marriage to Arthur had never been consummated. Henry argued that it had and asked for an annulment on that basis, although his real motive in seeking the annulment involved Catherine’s inability to provide the king a male heir. The annulment controversy put Clement, once again, in the middle. If the pope granted Henry a divorce, he would certainly incur the wrath of Charles. On the other hand, Clement’s uncle, as Pope Leo X, had previously praised Henry as defender of the faith for Henry’s defense of the Church against the attacks of Martin Luther . The pope was thus faced with a difficult choice.

At first, Clement agreed to support Henry if the king could prove that Catherine’s marriage to Henry’s brother had been consummated. Then, within months, Clement reversed his offer before the king could substantiate his case. The pope’s propensity for indecision and vacillation soured Henry’s view of the Papacy, and he decisively put away Catherine to pursue his own resolution of the matter. In 1533, Henry installed Thomas Cranmer as archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer subsequently proclaimed Henry’s marriage to Catherine invalid, allowing Henry to marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn . The next year, Henry established himself as head of the Church of England . Henry’s break with Rome further strengthened the progress of Protestantism and represented yet another loss for the Catholic Church.

Despite the criticism leveled against Clement VII’s papacy, he might be better viewed as a victim of his times. Bred in an environment that was focused on the maintenance of political power, he knew that people and institutions could survive only by pursuing the advantages of power. As a Medici, Clement knew this particularly well; his family excelled in the art of political deal making. While his indecisive character may have benefited Protestantism to the detriment of the Catholic Church, the religious reforms that were to follow Clement’s reign may well have come about only at the point at which the Catholic Church reached the crisis of the Protestant Reformation.

Significance

Despite its many failures, the papacy of Clement VII did produce some achievements. Clement’s deep appreciation for the arts inspired him to devote considerable attention to enriching the interior of the Vatican. He commissioned Michelangelo to paint the famous Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, and he enabled the talented goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini to begin his career in the papal court. Clement also encouraged church reforms, particularly by endorsing the establishment of reform-minded religious orders such as the Jesuits, the Capuchin Franciscans, the Theatine Fathers, and the Ursuline order of nuns.

On the other hand, Clement’s propensity for indecision gave strength to the progress of the Protestant Reformation. Had Clement agreed, for example, in 1526 to call a reformation council to address the growing protests of the German states about conditions in the Catholic Church, he may have been able to halt the total loss of Germany and Scandinavia to Lutheranism. Likewise, his indecisiveness on the matter of Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon left Henry enough time to deliberate his own decision to marry Anne Boleyn and subsequently to part with the Catholic Church.

Bibliography

Berni, Francesco, and Anne Reynolds. Renaissance Humanism at the Court of Clement VII: Francesco Berni’s “Dialogue Against Poets” in Context. New York: Garland, 1997. Translation of Berni’s 1526 dialogue, accompanied by extensive background and critical commentary. Discusses Clement VII’s court and the general political and religious culture of 1520’s Rome. Includes illustrations, photographic plates, bibliographic references, and index.

Chamberlin, E. R. The Bad Popes. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: Sutton, 2003. An informative discussion of seven medieval popes who reigned between 955 and 1534 and whose papacies were marred by elements of political intrigue and corruption. Includes photographs, illustrations, genealogical tables, bibliographic references, and index.

Flemer, Paul. “Clement VII and the Crisis of the Sack of Rome.” In Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence, edited by William J. Connell. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Detailed account of the 1527 sack of Rome and Clement’s response to it.

John, Eric, ed. The Popes: A Concise Biographical History. Vol. 2. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1964. Briefly chronicles the lives of the popes. Volume 2 covers the Papacy from Boniface VIII (1294) through Paul VI (1963).

Knecht, R. J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I. Rev. ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. The most comprehensive coverage of Francis I and his times. Contains an excellent account of Francis’s interactions with Pope Clement VII as well as the king’s response to the Protestant Reformation.

McBrien, Richard P. Lives of the Popes. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperCollins, 1997. Provides a complete listing of brief papal biographies. The appendices contain informative articles explaining how popes are elected and how they can be removed from office.

Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. Chronicles of the Popes. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. A good reference source on the Papacy. Includes time lines, data files, and illustrations, many with sidebars that provide anecdotal information on the personalities and times of the popes.

Spitz, Lewis W. The Protestant Reformation, 1517-1559. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. A comprehensive narrative by a noted historian about the causes and impacts of the Protestant Reformation. Provides a good discussion of the dynamics of the Reformation in England and Henry VIII’s break from Rome.